Coverlet



Get. 31, 1939. E WEISBENDER 2,177,679

COVERLET Filed March '7, 1938 Patented Oct. 31, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States for governmental purposes only without the payment to me of any royalty there- 5 on, in accordance with the provisions of the act of April30, 1928, Ch. 460, 45 Stat. L. 467.

This invention relates to improvements in bed clothing and more particularly to coverlets such as blankets, covers, quilts, robes, and the like, adapted for use immediately over a reposers body.

Broadly, the improvement resides in means attached to, or formed in, coverlets to prevent the exposure of the reposers shoulders, sides, or back, to cold air or drafts when the coverlet becomes taut or suspended over the body. More particularly, the invention comprises a coverlet having spaced, substantially parallel flaps, tucks or folds formed therein or attached thereto, longitudinally thereof, and adapted to depend from the coverlet 20 to clothe a reposers sides.

I To eliminate upper sheets over the reposer and beneath the coverlets is common practice in hospital, penal, miiltary and naval services and in the covering of infants and children, as well as the practice of many nonservice adults. The improved coverlet herein described, when used in the foregoing manner, eliminates the annoying discomfort, created in the use of conventional coverlets, of having ones sides or back exposed to air tunnels which are invariably created along the sides of the body by reason of the inability to keep a coverlet tucked closely about the body. The elimination of such exposure is not only, desirous in common practice but most generally a necessity with respect to patients.

Other objects of my invention will be set forth in, and become apparent from, the following description, it being understood that the above general statements of the objects of my invention are intended to generally explain the same without limiting it in any manner.

Articles of the class described having the characteristics of my invention and by which the invention may be practiced are intended to be illustrated by the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view, partially in section, of a bed illustrating the application of the improved coverlet, while 50 Figure 2 illustrates the application of the coverlet when used in connection with cots or beds having a greater tendency to sag.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of an inverted section of a coverlet illustrating the application, formation and arrangement of .the means adapted to cover the sides of a reposer, as described and claimed.

Figures 4 to 7 and 9 are views of sections of coverlets illustrating modifications of the side covering means.

Figure 8 illustrates the convenient foldability of the coverlet.

Several embodiments of my invention are known to me and are embraced within the scope of the appended claims, but according to that by Which the invention may be practiced, I provide flaps, tucks or folds l0 on, or in, a coverlet having a body-portion l l of conventional size and material. The fiaps, tucks or folds ID are arranged in spaced relation longitudinally of the coverlet, i. e., longitudinally as used, and are adapted to depend from the coverlet. Each flap, tuck or fold may be continuous throughout the length, or substantially the full length, of the coverlet, as shown particularly in Figures 4 to 8, or may be separated at intervals as illustrated at [0' in Figure 9. Another modification is shown in an inverted position in Figure 3, wherein it will be seen that fixed flaps l0 are formed only along the ends of the coverlet which in turn form loose folds Ill in the intermediate body portion of the coverlet. The flaps are preferably spaced sufiiciently to accommodate a body therebetween, and are of a depending width preferably comparable with that of the thickness, so to speak, of a persons body.

In the use of cots as beds, such as those commonly called Army cots or hospital cots and illustrated in Figure 2, the bed portion I2 inevitably sags hammook-like, particularly under the Weight of ones body, to such an extent that the upper-most portion of the body is below or substantially on a plane with the side frames I3 of the cot. In such instances, a coverlet over the body becomes suspended across the body to the side frames of the cot and an air tunnel I4 is unavoidably created along the sides of the body and to which the body is exposed in the absence of my improvements. The same is true in the use of upright bedsteads, as illustrated in Figure 1, where ones body acts as a suspension for a coverlet ll, suspending it tent fashion from the body to the side frames 13 of the bedstead, whereby the body is exposed to the air tunnels l4 created along the body by the suspended coverlet.

A similar exposure results when two persons occupy a bed, in which instance the coverlet invariably and unavoidably becomes suspended across the two bodies, thereby creating an air tunnel between the bodies as well as along the.

outermost sides of the respective bodies. The conventional width of a coverlet is insuflicient to permit each of the two parties to tuck the same closely to their sides and even if the ooverlets are of sufficient width, the tucking invariably becomes pulled loose and the coverlet is either drawn taut or suspended across the bodies and from the bodies to the bed frames upon the first and slightest turn or movement of either party. Another instance is the common practice of pinning or clamping coverlets sufiiciently taut over infants to prevent their crawling from thereunder, raising up, or otherwise becoming uncovered. For such purposes it is usually necessary to pin the coverlet to the side frame of the crib or the mattress and as so pinned, air tunnels are necessarily created along the sides of the infant.

By my invention, a persons sides remain covered by the depending flaps, tucks or folds IQ of the coverlet even though air tunnels, as previously described, are created.

There are, within the scope of my invention, a number of manners in which the flaps, tucks or folds iii may be formed, some of which are illustrated in the drawing. As in Figures 6, 8 and 9, the flaps it may comprise separate pieces sewed to the body-portion H of the coverlet in such a manner as to provide depending portions; they may be formed by portions of the bodyportion ii of the coverlet, as shown in Figure 4, by fixing folds or tucks therein and allowing the double portions to depend freely; they may be formed as illustrated in Figure 5, where the bodyportion l i consists of a series of strips sewed together in such a manner that a portion of each strip forms a portion of the coverlet body-portion with a depending edge portion forming the flap; they may be constructed as shown in Figure 7 with an added body-portion H attached to the web I i" between the flaps i9; they may be formed as described hereinbeiore with reference to Figure 3; or they may be formed in any other suitable manner, such for example as explained in connection with Figure 9.

The improved coverlet may be as conveniently and readily folded for storage as the conventional coverlet by merely raising the coverlet sufliciently for the flaps ill to drop into parallelism with the body-portion H of the coverlet, as illustrated in Figure 8.

From the foregoing it will 'aiso be seen that one may roll or move from one compartment, formed by the flaps, to another and immediately be clothed, from the air tunnels, by the'fiaps of i the compartment into which he moves. 1

Having described my invention, which I claim 1. A flexible body-contacting bed coverlet for human beings having longitudinal members disposed longitudinally from one end of said coverlet to the other between the side edges of the coverlet at intervals comparable with the Width of a human body and depending freely from said coverlet a width comparable with the thickness of a human body.

2. In combination with a flexible body-contacting bed coverlet for human beings having a body portion, longitudinal coverlet members of a width and length comparable, respectively, with that of the width of a human body, and the length of said coverlet, said members each fixed along one edge thereof to said body portion longitudinally thereof between its side edges at intervals com parable with the width of a human body and depending edgewise from said body portion suiiiciently to clothe the sides of a human body.

3. A bed coverlet adapted to lie in a substantially horizontal plane over and in contact with a human body, the improvement comprising a plurality of fixed longitudinally disposed tucks at predetermined intervals across the head end of the coverlet, short flaps of a width substantially that of the thickness of a human body formed by said tucks depending freely from said coverlet and adapted to contactingly clothe the sides of the neck of the human body, and loose folds formed by said tucks continuing longitudinally from said flaps and adapted to contactingly clothe the sides of a human body.

4. A bed coverlet for human beings adapted to clothe the uppermost side of a human body, comprising a 'continuousfabric sheet, a plurality of substantially parallel pleats therein freely depending therefrom, in which the width of the.

depending pleats are substantially equal to the thickness of a human body and the space between adjacent pleats is substantially equal to the width of a human body, and means fastening the fabric together at the base of said pleats whereby a coverlet is provided having bodycovering portion adaptedto lie in a substantially horizontal plane over and in contact'with a human body with the pleats depending therefrom and adapted to lie in a substantially vertical plane extending from said body-covering portion to the bed upon which the body lies, and in which said pleats are adapted to lie alongside of and in contact with a human body disposed beneath said body-covering portion.

EUGENE R. WEISBENDER. 

